What's New in the Launching of Start-ups?

Abstract

The exploitation of knowledge and experience is increasingly important to companies operating in the globalized economy, faced with intense competition and striving to make headway in difficult markets. If such exploitation is important for existing companies, able to develop their own knowledge from previous experience, it is critical for new ventures that have no direct real-world experience on which to draw. Would-be entrepreneurs now operate in a very different business environment from that of their predecessors and they need new forms of entrepreneurship education and new methods of pre-launch trial and analysis for start-ups. The transition from ‘nature’ to ‘nurture’ in the approach to and perception of entrepreneurship, coupled with the increasingly engaged economic role of higher education institutions and research centres can be manipulated effectively to improve the prospects for success of high-expectation entrepreneurs. This article demonstrates how Curley and Formica's model of the experimental laboratory for would-be entrepreneurs responds to the new business environment and the new thinking.